Well I’ve finally thawed out enough to write this post after a rather cold ending to our outdoor workshop yesterday. The workshop was excellent, it just got really really cold as soon as the sun set. The winds certainly didn’t help the cause. We were on the beach by the way, in case you hadn’t noticed from the photo above of Daniel Lomax taking a snap of our model Jen. I’m very happy with how the workshop went, the students got some amazing photos and I tell you what, I’m even jealous of a few of them. Well done all, it was great meeting you and I hope you took a lot away from the workshop to help improve your pictures.

2011 Ocean One Calendar Girl & 2011 Zoom TV Calendar Girl Jennifer Kirk was our beautiful model for the afternoon. Jen did an excellent job especially having to put up with the cold weather in the least amount of clothing of anyone there. Well done Jen and thank you for coming, I think you will be very happy with a few of the photos the guys took!

Also a massive thank you as always to my trusty assistants Karl Pearce and Jay Wells. This kind of thing just isn’t possible without you guys so thank you.

After the workshop, Jen & I decided to do a mini photoshoot of our own, experimenting with some coloured gels and I invited the workshop students to stick around and watch in the hope they might learn a little something extra. “Watch” for a photographer I guess now means standing with a camera to your face and snapping pictures away non-stop, so thats what they did. Might be good to see a Behind the Scenes shot but I’m pretty sure they weren’t pointing their camera anywhere near me! I don’t blame them.

To the left is a shot straight out of the camera that I took from our little after-shoot. I setup my Elincrom Ranger RX pack with just one light. That light had the 53″ Octabox attached to it for nice soft light which will make our model Jen look much more flattering.  I placed it to the right of camera a few feet out of frame. Then some handy reflector work from my assistant Karl who was just out of frame on the left, helped fill in some of the shadows on the left hand side of Jen. For the gels in the background I used a couple of Canon Speedlights. I used the Lumiquest FXtra gel holders and picked out a couple nice colours from the Rosco strobist gel kit. I had a little difficulting deciding on a colour but I actually quite like the result.

I switched to using the Yongnuo RF-602 wireless triggers for this shot because I like being able to slide the speedlights straight into the hot-shoe on the receiving triggers. And also because I didn’t have enough pocket wizards handy on the day. So there you have it! That was my bit of fun for the day.

Here’s a couple of snaps I managed to take behind the scenes at the workshop.

Look forward to seeing more pictures from you all!

B.